Andrew Siwko’s Blog #2

I opened up the hive by myself today.  It’s been 12 days since the last inspection when Bill came over to help.  This time I took pictures.  Brad came over and watched.  Some of the frames were really heavy.  I saw the queen on the back side of frame 6.  I took pictures to analyze later.  Here’s my overview:

Frame 1, 2, 3, no activity except a few cell sized holes.

Frame 4, some small amount of comb drawn on both sides.  8 bees on the inside.

Frames 5, 6, 7 are the nuc frames.

Frame 5 (outside): about 50 sealed brood center top, about the same number of larvae below, nectar all around the rest of the frame

Frame 5 (inside): about 150 sealed brood in the center, about the same in a band around the brood of larvae, maybe double that, but I can’t see into the cells, a band of pollen cells about 6 wide,  and then nectar.  I’d guess a third of the frame side is nectar.

Frame 6 (inside): a large block of sealed brood surrounded by nectar.  I’d guess 1/3 brood, 2/3 nectar.

Frame 6 (outside): about the same as the other side, but some larvae and the queen, a number of empty cells in the brood area.

Frame 7 (inside): about 150 pollen cells surrounded by nectar.

Frame 7 (outside): some nectar, empty cells, maybe eggs?

Frame 8, 9, 10: unexamined, unused, perhaps some drawn comb on inside of frame 8?

Pictures here: http://linode.siwko.org/2009-09-14-inspection

I’ve been struggling with sugar water.  I tried Rapidura in water but didn’t pay attention to the concentration.  I used tap water.  The bees didn’t drink it.  About that time the population was shrinking, I saw small hive beetles (SHB) in there (maybe).  I switched to Domino at a 2::1 ratio and the bees started to drink.  Then the SHBs disappeared and I had large black ants… and the bees drank more and the ants were gone.   Maybe it’s coincidence.

The current recipe:

1. One Feeder
2. Two empty 5lb honey jars
3. 12 cups Domino white sugar from Costco
4. 6 cups of tap water filtered through a Britta filter
5. boil the water
6. add the sugar
7. stir until it just begins to boil and the sugar is dissolved
8. cool the pot in the sink in a water bath
9. ladle into 2 honey jars using a funnel

The 5lb honey jars hold just over 6 cups of water.  6 cups of water + 12 cups of sugar filled two jars for me.

I hope that sugar water doesn’t ferment.  I screw on the tops and set the jars aside for later use.  They’ll cool off in their own time.

Right now, the bees seem to have settled in to a cup of syrup a day habit.

I did a quick inspection with no smoke this morning.

I had been worried about robbing, but I didn’t see any capping flakes on the bottom of the hive.

Frames 1,2,3 unchanged.

I scraped propolis off the spacers of all frames before closing up.

Frame 4 is showing a bit more comb on the outside.  I can’t tell, but I think there might be a bit of liquid in the cells.  The inside has yet more bees than than last time and possibly a little more comb drawn.

Frame 5 (outside): I’d guess there are about twice as many bees, but they’re all in the middle of the frame.  They seem lighter in color.  The sealed brood is lower on the frame.  There is now some capped honey at the top of the frame.  I see a few larvae, but not as many as before.  The bees are pretty thick, though.

Frame 5 (inside): There’s a little more capped honey on this side, but not much.  Many more bees, but clustered in the middle of the frame. It looks to me that the pollen stores are being consumed.  They’re deeper in the cells and look darker.  Even thought the bees are thick, there’s clearly more sealed brood.

It does appear that I reversed frame 6 last time.  I did not reverse again.

Frame 6 (inside): The queen is on this frame.  The honey is capped much farther down the left and right sides of the frame.  There are many more bees and as on other frames, they’re in the center of the frame now.  I didn’t see any pollen this time. but there appears to be sealed brood where there were larvae last time.  I don’t see any larvae this time.

Frame 6 (outside): As on the other frames, there are many more bees here this time.  There’s a bit more honey and perhaps some pollen, though it’s too thick to see through the bees.

Frame 7 (inside): More capped honey and more pollen.  Many more bees.

Frame 7 (outside): Fewer bees.  The liquid seems to have been drawn down.

Frames 8, 9, 10 unchanged.

I’ve seen a whole lot more pollen coming in to the hive recently.  I don’t know where it’s going.